Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Balkan Sasieni

My experience and notes about this tobacco dates to my days in which I was having emotions when smelling the latakias. Nowadays this blend still catches my attention.

The latakia content of this blend is very well balanced. It is not hiding the high quality virginia and oriental addition. Beside the nice flavors of virginia and orientals you are having the irresistable taste and deep coolness of the latakia.

If you are a fan of balkan blends this will be a unforgetable experience for you. If you are not, well, it worths to have it in your "tasted tobaccos" list. A real Balkan..

This is a full flavored, full aroma, bold Balkan blend. Tin note is smokey Latakia and woody and sour Orientals with some hint of grassy Virginias. 3 tins came ready to smoke in terms of moisture content. This is easy to pack and lights and smokes easily. The flavor is what I would call signature Balkan. There is a base of sweet Virginia's (red and stoved by my observation). The Latakia and Turkish/Orientals balance beautifully with the sweet smokey Cyprian Latakia and woody spicy orientals (maybe a hint of spice from the stoved Virginia's?). To me all great Balkans have a "malty" like flavor and this is no exception.There is also a spicy incense like quality in the smoke. It is very complex and consistent throughout the bowl. The orientals also have a club soda like "flavor" or fizziness to them. Overall this is a top 5 tobacco for me. Fantastic in every way.

Balkan Sasieni, to me, is the same as Balkan Supreme (bulk). Some people detect a difference, I don't.

Balkan Sasieni is good, but I get a better deal in bulk.

Good, Latakia forward blend with a strong oriental component. The cut is easy to pack and light though it burns a little fast.

Comes at the right moisture level right out of the tin, which is a little on the dry side but still pliable.

Try it and also try Balkan Supreme in bulk. If you agree they are the same thing, then stick with the bulk version (cheaper)

Another 4 star tobacco blend that I had smoke. This blend came with a nice package tin and the tin note is good, smokey herbal tobacco smells little bit strong when I open it for the first time. Dark brown, black and yellow gold tobacco mixed well and pleased my eyes so well.

Like usual, I pack it with 3 layer method and this time I'm using my Ben Wade Standard pipe. It is a poker barrel shaped bowl, a tall bowl. Lot of senior pipesmokers tolds me if smoking English/Oriental blends using a wide short pipe is more better to get all nuances, taste and flavor and to catch the complexity and tall bowls are for virginia. I agree with that but this time I want to give a little bit "ghost flavor" of smokey blends to my Ben Wade pipe.

With a nice cherring light this tobacco burn quite well on my pipe. The first strike is spice and peppery taste fill my mouth and touch my tongue. This is the signs if I must smoke and draw this stuff properly. A smooth and long draw is proper way to enjoy this tobacco, draw it with rush and hurry just ruin the pleasure and just make lost all the nuances of this nice blend.

This is a well balanced blend and smokes great at my pipe. The spice, peppery, smokey, and the grassy is mixed so well at this blend, taste so firm and subtle. A very decent smoke, and it give me more then an hour of pleasure on full packed pipe, the strength is medium and not overwhalming. Not difficult to maintain the light and at the ending, it just a nice smooth white ash at the bottom of the chamber.

First tin, second bowl. So I ordered 5 more. I usually grab a Lat or Nic bomb, but there's just a wonderful balance here. It won't replace Ten Russans, but it will handily fit into my Rotation. Frog Morton didn't make the cut. FM is just too mild. I'll finish it off, but add some Latakia & Perique to get it up to a more respectable level. Really wanted to like FM, partly because the art is so cool.

Edited: Now that I have a meer, this really shines. Started my 2nd tin, & I'll have 15 cellared when my next order arrives. Damn, this is grand stuff at a great price.

Some people compares this tobacco to BSOM. Although they share some characteristics, they are quite different. Compton's Macedonian Mixture is a bit closer, and maybe Charing Cross too, but they are all excellent tobaccos on their own right. Out of these, Sasieni is the mildest and mellowest, so it should be the choice for those who love Balkans but are often overwhelmed by the taste.

A friend of mine at our local pipe club gifted me about a tin of this. He did not care for it very much and he asked me if I liked it. The only catch was I give him the jar back that it was in and how could I say no. I think he is more into Virginia tobaccos overall, anyway I erroneously told him I had tried this but now I am not so sure. I have two tins from around 2013 but if I have smoked any my memory fails me. I loaded my pipe up this afternoon on the porch with my Hammerhead coffee (shot of espresso and coffee) and upon taking two puffs I already knew how I was going to rate this. This is really a great tasting Balkan/English blend, I do not care what they call it as a matter of fact all I know is the Latakia/Oriental/Turkish in this blend is very well blended. I especially liked the way it smells out of the bag. I have had three bowls of this and that is enough for me to give this one a 4 star.

Well now, this is just some delightful stuff.

In the early days, after first picking up the pipe, I purchased this STG Balkan Sasieni having absolutely no inkling of what folklore there was surrounding The Balkan Sobranie. But I wasn’t comparing this tobacco to any others (even though many others were in the reviews I was reading on this, as well as The Other Balkan Sobranie -- i.e., not the original). To paraphrase Greg Pease himself: “perhaps the newcomer to the pipe is more fortunate than we old guys are, since they have fewer lost loves to shackle them."

Frankly, when I first tried this, I was not impressed. It was too weak, too frail, too airy, too pathetic – it was not Irish Flake – and me, being the greenhorn novice (ex-cigar smoker), I was looking for big, bold, expressive tobaccos (silly me). I bought a bunch of this Sasieni, so I just put it all away and told myself I would have to come back to it some rainy day.

Well, that day was today. This is just a GREAT Balkan -- Latakia, Oriental/Turkish and Virginia tobacco, perfectly blended as a Balkan. Is it the best Balkan I’ve ever smoked? No. Is it good? No, it’s not. It’s fantastic! If I feel like smoking Penzance, I’m going to reach for some Penzance; if I feel like a bowl of Arango, I’m going to grab that Balkan. If I feel like a Balkan Sasieni, I’m going to reach for this stuff (or it's first cousin, JF Germain's Balkan Sobranie). This Balkan Sasieni is at once cultivated, friendly, tame, mellow, and very approachable. It’s perfectly balanced, well-blended, burns well, and -- best of all – it tastes great (to me and my palate at least).

Rating pipe tobacco is such a subjective endeavor. It’s hard for me to find a tobacco that I don’t love, but then I dissed Presbyterian with a single star, and I snubbed both GL Pease Westminster and Dunhill Flake with mere two-star recommends – both highly rated blends – so, there ya’ go (again, "subjective" -- we're talking taste buds, palates, preferences -- individual, particular, idiosyncratic) . . .

Still suffering from PTSD following the passing of McClelland and departure of Dunhill, I will be stocking even more of this for peace of mind (that feeling of being safe or protected from unforeseen, calamitous circumstances). 4-stars.

This blend is bliss.

I'm going to steer away from the conventional review style due to the great reviews that exist here on this blend; but I will give you a good gage here:

Imagine if nightcap was tangier, a bit more sour and had a bit more complexity in the forefront, with additional hidden nuances in the background. This is Balkan Sasieni. Its Nightcap's more complex brother. Extremely satisfying. You would do yourself a mitzvah if you tried it.